Saul Leiter: RETROSPECTIVE

The Photographer’s Gallery, London

22 January – 3^rd April 2016

"I don't have a philosophy, I have a camera.."  Saul Leiter

A Prolific New York Photographer Comes Back Into Focus New York Times

Once lost to obscurity, this photographer is now a legend

Washington Post. It seems remarkable that Saul Leiter (1923-2013) is only just beginning to acquire significant mainstream recognition for his pioneering role in the emergence of colour photography.

He moved to New York intent on becoming a painter, which he continued in parallel with his photography, yet ended up working for magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, Elle and British Vogue and became known for his fashion work.

As early as 1946, and thus two decades before the 1970s new colour photography school (William Eggleston, Stephen Shore et al), Leiter was using Kodachrome colour slide film for his free artistic shots, despite it being despised by artists of the day. Instinctively for him, colour was the picture.

An iconoclast who pursued his vision through signature framing devices, bold hues and relective surfaces, Leiter manages to transform seemingly ordinary street scenes in close proximity to his New York apartment into visual poetry. Review by Brigitte Woischnik. 

Saul Leiter was a successful fashion and commercial photographer. HIs career and influence stretched from the late '50's until the 1970's. I found all of his imagery was multi-layered, using a particularly soft focus style giving an impressionistic quality; the juxtaposition of bright colour balanced or skewed obtusely against the portrait or the figure were reflective of Cubism. 

Saul Leiter's Retrospective was one of my favourite exhibitions. I loved the unstaged nature of his urban and group compositions and especially the bold use of colour within his work. Leiter's vibrant mixed media sketchbooks were inspirational; painting directly onto his nude photographs using vibrant colours evoking movement and accentuating the structure of the human form (in my opinion, reminiscent of Arnulf Rainer). Colour really was 'the picture' for him wasn't it?

LEE MILLER: a Woman’s War

Imperial War Museum, London

15^th October 2015 – 24^th April 2016

Raped aged seven. Spotted by Conde Nast aged 19. Muse to Man Ray in her twenties. Painted by Picasso aged 30. And the woman in Hitler's bathtub in 1945, aged 38. It becomes clear from the very outset of this new Imperial War Museum exhibition, opening with that Picasso and a stunning Penrose painting too, that Lee Miller's life was an extraordinary one.  

Split into four sections, Lee Miller: a Woman's War, aims to trace photographer Miller's vision of women and their lives from before the Second World War, during wartime in both Britain and Europe, and in the immediate aftermath of the war. Although her wartime experience is clearly unique (Miller was one of only four female photographers with official accreditation from the US, and the first woman reporter in Normandy after the D-Day landings), the show suggests there are parallels between her experience and that of women throughout Europe.

The overriding impression is that the war had a devastating impact on women's lives. Indeed, Miller struggled with post-traumatic stress and depression for the rest of her life.

If the exhibition aims to depict all women's experience in the war, we would argue that Miller's extraordinary life rather overtakes that — this becomes a show more about Miller than the common woman. The title (A Woman's War) reflects that. For a show purporting to be about women, it's incredibly short on femininity; we found ourselves longing for some lightness and colour in the rather relentless 150-odd black-and-white photos. The occasional display of a dress, a letter, the trinkets half-inched from Eva Braun's bedside table were like a welcome breath of fresh air as we waded through the sombre sea of pictures.  Review by Zoe Craig (the LONDONist)

https://londonist.com/2015/10/lee-miller-exhibition-review-imperial-war-museum

An eclectic and at times harrowing account of this society darling turned war photo-journalist. Lee Miller embraced this role, although the glamour contrasting the darkness and death was rather jarring at times. 

The evocative images of Miller in Hitler's bathroom alongside the surreal documenting of hairstyles and Vogue fashion covers were compelling to see.

Within her work, there are the influences of Man Ray and Roland Penrose;  the stark images with high contrast, combining with the eerie overall composition of sophistication and desolation.